Classroom Enrichment - Montessori School of Mahoning Valley

Integrated Enrichment

The humanities are an important part of human culture, and it is no different in our Montessori community. As all areas of study, the arts are integrated into the daily work of the child, seamlessly woven into the fabric of the child’s school life.

Physical Education

Movement is a key component in the development of the human brain. Learning through movement has been scientifically proven to create strong synaptic connections, and to improve the depth of learning. The Montessori Method promotes the child’s self-control by providing many varieties of movement opportunities through the academic works.

Primary - Children have a innate learning tendency to perfect their self-control. They are willing to exert great effort to balance, carry, walk, pull, push, and otherwise impact their surroundings through their own physical efforts. Children as early as age 3 are perfecting their movements while working on math, language, geography, geometry, Practical Life skills—rolling a rug, scrubbing a table, walking on a line while carrying a tray of objects. Our Primary students are introduced to basic yoga poses, and work on developmentally appropriate gross motor movements like hopping, skipping, bouncing a ball.

When children being their All Day Primary (Kindergarten) year, they are required by the State to have a formal Physical Education program. We participate in Gym and Swim at the YMCA once a week. Students enjoy approximately 45 minutes of gym activities and 45 minutes of swimming lessons with trained professionals.

Elementary and Adolescents - Our weekly Phys Ed program for our older students includes a variety of activities that not only address refinement of self-control, and physical fitness, but allows children to explore a range of skills that they might use for fitness on into their adult years. Phys Ed activities are held either on campus or out in the community, and specialists teach children the skills and rules necessary for performance, enjoyment, and safety. Recently our Phys Ed program has included golf with fitness training, yoga, basketball, ballroom dancing, roller skating, swimming, and archery.

Music

In the Montessori Primary classroom, music is a sensorial work which leads into reading and math. Music is an integral part of the daily life of the child—music greets the children as they enter the classroom in the morning, is celebrated through group songs at Circle Time, and is experimented with through classroom rhythm instruments and the Montessori bell works. Primary students learn to discriminate pitch and dynamics with these bells, eventually learning to arrange the bells in a chromatic scale and even to pick out some songs by ear.

In addition to the music education woven into everyday studies, Elementary and Adolescent students work with a music teacher each week to learn music theory, music history, etc. They read music, practice rhythm, learn chords, octaves, keys, major and minor themes, play and sing songs, and much more!

Foreign Language

Our foreign language program is provided to open the pathways in the brain for the acquisition of languages. Currently, our main foreign language curriculum is Spanish.

Beginning in All-Day Primary (Kindergarten), students participate in weekly classes with a Spanish language instructor. Students begin by learning sounds of the language and acquiring day-to-day vocabulary such as colors, numbers, shapes, etc. As they progress, they are introduced to grammar and early phases of conversational language. Students also spend time studying the culture from which the language originates.

Adolescent Latin - In addition to Spanish instruction, we introduce Latin in the Adolescent program as part of the children’s daily work in order to assist them with their studies in high school and college. Students learn to read, write, and translate, and participate in the National Latin Exam annually.

Art

Through use of a variety of media, students learn techniques through sensorial exploration. Art materials are provided in the classrooms for students to use for creative and academic applications. A child may choose to create a poster to illustrate a concept, or do a self-portrait as part of their Personal Timeline work. Primary students receive lessons on using basic tools and materials such as scissors, paint, glue, etc. An art specialist presents techniques weekly in our Elementary and Adolescent programs, where students work on longer term projects.

Art appreciation is developed beginning at age 3 to Adolescents through use of Montessori art cards, art history timelines, and research reports. Elementary and Adolescent students may study art on field trips to museums such as The Butler institute of American Art.

Drama

As part of the natural interests of children, students experiment with the writing and producing of scenes, skits, and short plays. This is student-generated work that occurs naturally as one of the many ways children process and communicate their interests and curricular learning experiences. Students benefit from the guidance of their peers who are exploring theatre out in the community, and from the necessary collaboration and creative expression that is inherent in the dramatic arts. Performances of smaller pieces involving a few of the students are given to their classroom community, or to other classrooms with similar interests. Larger, whole classroom community collaborative projects are sometimes performed for our school families at our traditional Evening of Thanks.

Students in 3rd grade or above with an interest in theater have the opportunity to participate in our Theatre Club productions. See our after school enrichments page for additional information.